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Topics - NateTheGreat

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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Pinia 'Shawi' Germination
« on: October 09, 2022, 08:45:08 PM »
How were other people's germination rates, especially those from Dada this spring? I got one out of 20. Not suggesting bad handling or anything, just hoping I didn't screw the rest up. It's been getting morning sun, even through the heat wave, so not as sun-intolerant as I'd heard.


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Temperate Fruit Discussion / Caprified Figs
« on: August 24, 2020, 09:42:10 PM »
I have an unknown fig variety bearing for the first time this year. No breba crop, maybe due to late-season pruning last year. It's been producing a lot of small amber-fleshed figs with a purely sweet flavor. After eating about twenty I bit into one, and found bright red flesh. It tastes like a mix of strawberries and raspberries, with a bit of lemon. I ate a few more amber ones before I found a second red one. I am blown away, the taste is so much better! It's got a lot more jam inside too. Both of the red ones I found were on the same branch, on the south side of the tree. They were also a bit bigger than most of the amber ones, and now I notice some ripening ones that are bigger and more spherical than typical.

Is this caprification, and is this much difference typical? I'm amazed at how much better the red ones are.


Typical figs


Inside


Caprified?


Comparison with amber/uncaprified


Guessing these are caprified


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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Bees or Wasps on Myrtaceae
« on: May 29, 2020, 11:10:50 AM »
This month I noticed some bees or wasps hanging out on the new growth of my feijoas. Then on Eugenia calycina, and now primarily on red jaboticaba. I can't see any bugs or eggs they'd be eating. It seems like they just like these plants for some reason. I just saw four of them sleeping on my red jaboticaba. I could understand they might pick a favorite plant and call it home, but multiple plants all from the same family? Anybody have an explanation?

















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None of these have fruited yet, but I am enjoying seeing the variety of leaf color in Eugenia involucrata, E. calycina, and the orange E. aff. involucrata species. It will be very interesting to see how these relate to fruit color and taste.



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Tropical Fruit Discussion / Lemon Guava Leaf Spot
« on: May 09, 2019, 08:01:57 PM »
My lemon guava's leaves aren't lasting nearly as long as I think they should. As shown in the pictures, starting from the lowest leaves of this spring's growth (8 weeks since these leaves broke bud), the leaves are developing brown spots near the leaf tip, moving gradually down the edge, with the entire leaf eventually turning red. I thought this was normal initially, but I'm starting to worry that I'm going to run out of leaves by the middle of the summer, and haven't seen anything similar being reported online. One of my Cherries of the Rio Grande has two leaves with brown spots not similar to these, but in general the plant looks healthy, and none of my other plants have shown this symptom yet. I'm in Northern California. It seems like some kind of fungal infection to me, but that might just mean that the plant is being weakened by something else that I need to address, for example low humidity or insufficient water. It isn't currently pushing new growth, so something may be stunting its growth, I'm just not sure what's typical. The tree has been in the ground for a bit over a year.







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Tropical Fruit Buy, Sell & Trade / Wanted: Kadsura
« on: December 16, 2017, 01:15:55 PM »
Looking for seeds of Kadsura coccinea, or similar Kadsuras, shipped to California, USA.

It looks like the Vietnamese name is Quả Na Rừng. Here is an article about it with pictures: http://vietnamnet.vn/vn/kinh-doanh/thi-truong/na-rung-khung-nang-toi-4kg-tien-trieu-qua-406710.html It says there are two types, red and white. I think the white ones have green skin and the red have red skin, but Google Translate isn't perfect. This says 150-1200m elevation, but I've read from Chinese sources it is higher, like 1500-2000 (don't remember exactly). Seems to be native to southern China and northern Vietnam. These articles say it is foraged from deep within the forests, but I've seen pictures of commercial plantings as well. From this article, it sounds like it's not traditionally considered medicinal nor valuable in Vietnam, but the Chinese have recently been buying it from locals for their traditional medicines, leading to scarcity: https://news.zing.vn/vi-sao-qua-na-rung-5-kg-co-gia-500000-dong-post592580.html

From what I've read from Vietnamese sources it grows as a vine before becoming a 15-20m tree. Based on the regions it grows in, I suspect it could grow in areas with mild frost like Northern California, although it may not be able to handle our summers. Only one way to find out.

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